Jack Straw, Britain's former Foreign
Secretary and Jewish himself, recently blamed "unlimited" Jewish funds given
to AIPAC, for continued wars in the Middle East.

His statements were
widely reported in the Jewish media, and in "anti-Semitic" media, but
ignored by "Mainstream" media. The latter did report (about Oct 25) that
Straw intended to resign from partliament at the 2015 election; and did
report his attack on Union vote-rigging in British Labour.

Thus is
the public denied information about who rules our"democracies" and who
shapes our minds.

To check the above,- while this matter is still
recent, search Google News for "jack straw" "aipac". Use the double-quotes
exactly as shown, to force Google to exclude extraneous material. Check
which media show up in the hits- also search Google News for "jack straw"
"unlimited". Try adding "aipac" as well- now search Google (Web, not
News) for the same search strings; you can specify a time period (eg "last
month").

"I guess he neglected to mention Jewish control of the media …,"
commented former Israeli Knesset member Einat Wilf, was at the debate in
the House of Commons, and posted Straw’s remarks on Facebook.

Don't
miss item 12, about Lasse Wilhelmson, "the most hated man in Sweden".

(JTA) — Jack Straw, a British lawmaker and former foreign
secretary, said “unlimited” funds available to U.S. Jewish groups are used
to control American policy in the Middle East.

The comments
reportedly were made last week during a debate in the British Parliament’s
House of Commons. Former Israeli Knesset member Einat Wilf was at the debate
and posted Straw’s remarks on her Facebook page.

Straw said,
according to Wilf, that the greatest obstacles to peace between Israel and
the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors are the “unlimited” funds available
to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the United States, as well as Germany’s
“obsession” with defending Israel.

“I guess he neglected to mention
Jewish control of the media …,” Wilf added on her Facebook
status.

Straw announced Friday that he would step down as a Parliament
member from the Labor Party at the 2015 general election. He has served in
Parliament since 1979.

He was home secretary and foreign secretary
under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and as secretary of state of justice under
Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Jack Straw says in parliament
debate 'unlimited' funds available to Jewish groups in US used to control
America's Mideast policy; adds Germany's 'obsession' with defending Israel
another obstacle for peace

Published: 10.27.13, 09:42 / Israel News

Former British Foreign Secretary and Labor MP Jack Straw made harsh
anti-Semitics statements during a British parliament debate last week,
Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Listing the greatest obstacles to peace,
Straw said that unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC
in the US are used to control and divert American policy in the
region.

Straw, who served as foreign secretary in Tony Blair's government
in 2001-2006, further claimed that Germany’s “obsession” with defending
Israel was also a contributing factor to failure to achieve
peace.

The former British official made the comments during the Round
Table Global Diplomatic Forum in the British House of Commons. Also in
attendance were former Israeli Knesset Member Einat Wilf and the
Palestinian ambassador to London who accused Israel of "cultural
genocide" and "ethnic cleansing."

"It was appalling to listen to
Britain's former foreign secretary," Dr. Wilf said. "His remarks reflect
prejudice of the worst kind. We're used to hearing groundless accusations
from Palestinian envoys but I thought British diplomats, including former
ones, were still capable of a measure of rational
thought.

"Throughout the debate I reiterated that the origin of the
conflict was the Arab and Palestinian unwillingness to accept the Jewish
people's legitimate right to a state of their own, and that as long as that
willingness is absent there will be no true solution."

The former MK
further remarked, "At least the Palestinian representative and I could agree
that we both want a speedy divorce."

Meanwhile, it has been reported that
Straw said Friday he would step down as a member of parliament at the 2015
general election.

The lawmaker for the Labor Party, now in opposition,
has served continuously as an MP since 1979, representing the town of
Blackburn in northwest England.

He has recently expressed
favorability towards the new Iranian president Hassan Rohani. “You could do
business with him, and we were able to do business with him,” Straw told
CNN's Christiane Amanpour. “I very profoundly believe that (this) is a new
chance for proper negotiations.”

“President Rohani is an Iranian and he
represents Iran’s national interest, so people have got to factor that in,
and it’s entirely right that he should do that,” Straw said.

Biggest
Barrier To Peace is 'Unlimited' Funds Given to AIPAC, Says Jack
Straw

Ex-British Foreign Secretary To Quit Parliament

By
JTA

Published October 27, 2013.

Former British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw said during a debate in the British parliament that “unlimited”
funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the U.S. are used to
control American policy in the Middle East.

The comments reportedly
were made last week during the Round Table Global Diplomatic Forum in the
British House of Commons.

Former Israeli Knesset Member Einat Wilf was in
attendance at the debate and posted Straw’s comments on her Facebook
page.

Straw said, according to Wilf, that the greatest obstacles to peace
between Israel and the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors are the
“unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the
U.S., as well as Germany’s “obsession” with defending Israel.

“I
guess he neglected to mention Jewish control of the media…,” Wilf added on
her Facebook status.

Straw announced Friday that he would step down as a
member of Parliament from the Labor Party at the upcoming 2015 general
election. He has served in Parliament continuously since 1979. Straw served
as both Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Tony
Blair, and as Secretary of State of Justice under Prime Minister Gordon
Brown.

Former British FM
blamed ‘unlimited’ Jewish, Zionist funds for conflict. Former MK: He forgot
Jewish control of the media.

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish:
10/27/2013, 12:32 PM

Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has
reportedly blamed Jewish groups with “unlimited” funds for the Israeli-Arab
conflict.

“I nearly fell off my rickety British chair today when former
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke at the Round Table Global Diplomatic
Forum in the British House of Commons. Listing the greatest obstacles to
peace, he said "unlimited" funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC
in the US are used to control and divert American policy in the region,”
former Member of Knesset Einat Wilf reported on her Facebook
page.

Straw also blamed “Germany's ‘obsession’ with defending Israel,”
she said, adding, “I guess he neglected to mention Jewish control of the
media...”

Straw has a history of offending Israeli leaders with his
remarks on the Israeli-Arab conflict. In 2003, he angered the Foreign
Ministry by comparing Israel to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

In 2006, he
said the world should be as concerned with disabling Israel’s nuclear
capabilities, as it is with Iran’s nuclear program.

Under Straw,
Britain’s foreign ministry considered maintaining diplomatic ties with
members of Hamas, a terrorist group which openly states that its goal is
Israel’s destruction.

According to former MK Einat Wilf, Jack Straw
said at House of Commons debate that greatest obstacles to
Israeli-Palestinian peace include Germany's "obsession" with defending
Israel.

Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said during a debate
in the British parliament that “unlimited” funds available to Jewish
organizations and AIPAC in the US are used to control American policy in
the Middle East.

The comments reportedly were made last week during
the Round Table Global Diplomatic Forum in the British House of
Commons.

Former Israeli Knesset Member Einat Wilf was in attendance at
the debate and posted Straw’s comments on her Facebook page.

Straw
said, according to Wilf, that the greatest obstacles to peace between Israel
and the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors are the “unlimited” funds
available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the US, as well as Germany’s
“obsession” with defending Israel.

“I guess he neglected to mention
Jewish control of the media…,” Wilf added on her Facebook
status.

Straw announced Friday that he would step down as a member of
Parliament from the Labor Party at the upcoming 2015 general election. He
has served in Parliament continuously since 1979. Straw served as both Home
Secretary and Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and as
Secretary of State of Justice under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Former British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw reportedly said during a debate in the British
parliament that “unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and
AIPAC in the US are used to control American policy in the Middle
East.

The comments were made last week during the Round Table Global
Diplomatic Forum in the British House of Commons, according to former
Knesset member Einat Wilf.

Wilf was participating in the debate and
posted what she said were Straw’s comments on her Facebook
page.

Straw said, according to Wilf, that the greatest obstacles to peace
between Israel and the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors are the
“unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the US,
as well as Germany’s “obsession” with defending Israel. Jack Straw
(photo credit: Ministry of Justice, UK / Wikipedia Commons)

Wrote
Wilf: “I nearly fell off my rickety British chair today when former UK
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke at the Round Table Global Diplomatic
Forum in the British House of Commons. Listing the greatest obstacles to
peace, he said ‘unlimited’ funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC
in the US are used to control and divert American policy in the region and
that Germany’s ‘obsession’ with defending Israel were the problem.

“I
guess he neglected to mention Jewish control of the media….”

Wilf told
the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday that “It was appalling to listen to
Britain’s former foreign secretary. His remarks reflect prejudice of the
worst kind.” She added: “We’re used to hearing groundless accusations from
Palestinian envoys but I thought British diplomats, including former ones,
were still capable of a measure of rational thought.”

Wilf, a member
of Knesset from 2010 to 2013 (Labor, and then the breakaway Independence
party), said she repeatedly stressed in the debate that the root of the
conflict lay in the Palestinian and Arab refusal to accept Israel’s
sovereign legitimacy as a Jewish state. “Throughout the debate I reiterated
that the origin of the conflict was the Arab and Palestinian unwillingness
to accept the Jewish people’s legitimate right to a state of their own, and
that as long as that willingness is absent there will be no true
solution.”

Straw announced Friday that he would step down as a member of
Parliament from the Labor Party at the upcoming 2015 general election. He
has served in Parliament continuously since 1979. Straw served as both home
secretary and foreign secretary under prime minister Tony Blair, and as
justice secretary under prime minister Gordon Brown.

Straw, who has
noted that his Blackburn constituency has some 25,000 Muslim residents and
23 mosques, has made anti-Israel comments in the past. In June, on a BBC
radio program, he declared that Israel “has no territorial ambitions apart
from stealing the land of the Palestinians.” When he was foreign secretary
in 2001 he reportedly made comments that appeared to legitimize Palestinian
terrorism, prompting then prime minister Ariel Sharon to cancel a meeting
with him.

(8) Haaretz: Jack Straw denies that his comments on 'Jewish
money' were anti-Semitic

Jack Straw says he has always 'strongly supported'
Israel 'and its right to live in peace and security.'

By Anshel
Pfeffer | 19:54 28.10.13 | 1

Former British Foreign Minister Jack Straw
has denied making "anti-Semitic" commentsat an event last week at the
House of Commons in London. Former Member of Knesset Einat Wilf accused
Straw of saying in a Middle East seminar that “unlimited” funds are
available to Jewish organizations - such AIPAC.

(9) Jewish News UK: Straw
says he probably said that Jewish funds were “huge not unlimited"

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
has hit back at criticism that he identified the “unlimited” funds of
American Jewish groups as being one of the main obstacles to peace in the
Middle East.

Straw, who announced that he was stepping down from
parliament three days after the remarks, forcefully denied accusations of
prejudice levelled at him by an Israeli participant in the House of Commons
debate on 22 October.

Dr Einat Wilf, a fellow speaker at the round
table debate and former member of the Knesset, said after the event that
Straw had engaged in “an anti-Semitic rant” that “reflects prejudice of the
worst kind”.

However Straw hit back, saying there was “no justification
whatever” for such claims.

“I am not remotely anti-Semitic, quite the
reverse,” said Straw. “I have all my life strongly supported the state of
Israel and its right to live in peace and security.”

Wilf said the
Blackburn MP – many of whose constituents are Muslim – claimed that funds
available to American Jewish groups such as AIPAC were being used to control
US policy in the Middle East, and that Germany’s “obsession” with defending
Israel was another major impediment to peace.

“I almost fell off my
rickety British chair,” said Wilf. “I guess he neglected to mention Jewish
control of the media…”

Straw said he could not remember whether he said
American Jewish organisations’ funds were unlimited or not. “My
recollection is that I said they were huge not unlimited,” he
said.

Equally, the Blackburn MP – many of whose constituents are Muslim –
could not confirm whether he said Jewish groups’ funding of politicians
and candidates was among the greatest obstacles to peace. “I cannot now
recall whether I said that AIPAC et al was an obstacle to peace or a
major obstacle,” he told the Jewish News.

The contentious remarks
were made during a Round Table Global Diplomatic Forum, attended by Shadow
Minister for the Middle East Ian Lucas MP and Prof. Manuel Hassassian, the
Palestinian Ambassador to the UK.

Straw said: “I spoke of the problems
which faced President Obama from AIPAC and the Israeli lobby more generally…
Under US political funding rules (or their absence) huge sums were spent by
AIPAC in support of some politicians/candidates, and against
others.”

Straw concluded: “None of this is anti-Semitic. There are plenty
of people in Israel who take a similar view to me.”

However, his
explanation did not appease everyone, with Israeli Ambassador Daniel Taub
castigating Straw for his comments.

“These comments fall in a very
troubling tradition of attributing support for Israel to a sinister exercise
of Jewish power,” said Taub.

“Particularly striking is the refusal to
consider that support for Israel may arise, not as a result of pressure from
some mysterious cabal, but simply from the recognition that, within the
current turmoil in the Middle East, Israel remains an island of stability,
irrevocably committed to democracy, free speech and the rule of law.
”

Upon her return to Israel, Wilf said: “It was appalling to listen to
Britain’s former foreign secretary. His remarks reflect prejudice of the
worst kind. We’re used to hearing groundless accusations from
Palestinian envoys but I thought British diplomats were still capable of
a measure of rational thought.”

Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at
the time of the joint US-UK invasion of Iraq, has had a history of making
remarks seen as anti-Israel.

On BBC Radio Radio 4's flagship ‘Today’
programme on 14 June, Straw is reported to have said that Israel had “a most
extensive nuclear weapons capability” and was “stealing the land of the
Palestinians”.

Former
British foreign secretary Jack Straw said on Monday that there was “no
justification” in describing comments he had made in the House of Commons,
which criticized AIPAC and Israeli foreign policy, as
anti-Semitic.

Straw faced a sharp response from the Zionist
Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, which said his comments “echo some
of the oldest and ugliest prejudices about ‘Jewish power’ and go far beyond
mere criticism of Israel.”

“[The comments] would be unacceptable in
any context, but for a sitting Member of Parliament to do so in the House of
Commons is especially troubling, given that his status will give credence
and respectability to beliefs that would otherwise be dismissed as bigoted
nonsense,” federation chairman Paul Charney said in a statement to The
Jerusalem Post.

Straw’s comments at a panel hosted at the House of
Commons last week were originally reported by former MK Einat Wilf, another
panelist. She announced in a Facebook post and in subsequent interviews that
Straw had said that AIPAC’s political clout and “unlimited” funding were
prime obstructions to the peace process. She also said Straw claimed that
Germany has an “obsession” with defending Israel.

In his statement to
the Post on Monday, Straw did not deny making those comments.

But he
strongly pushed back against claims that his criticism was
anti-Semitic.

“I am not remotely anti-Semitic,” he
said.

“Quite the reverse. I have all my life strongly supported the State
of Israel and its right to live in peace and security.”

Straw
reiterated his concerns about Israeli policy, making three points.

First,
Israeli settlement building on “Palestinian land … amounted to ‘theft’ of
Palestinians’ land,” he stated.

Second, Straw argued that Germany
historically has stood in the way of stronger European Union action against
settlement building: “One of the difficulties in gaining EU agreement for
this has, in the past, been the attitude of Germany, who for understandable
reasons have been reluctant to be out of line with the government of
Israel.

That said, I think I noted that the EU’s attitude had changed,
and there are now restrictions imposed by the EU on goods from the
settlements.”

Finally, Straw said that political funding rules in the
United States allow lobbying organizations in the US, such as AIPAC, to
exercise a large amount of influence in support of, or against, political
candidates.

Straw did not say that AIPAC has “unlimited” funding or that
Germany had an “obsession” with Israel – as Wilf had claimed – and he did
not directly link AIPAC to obstruction of Middle East peace.

But
neither did he deny making those comments last week.

Wilf said on Sunday
that Straw’s remarks reflected the new anti-Semitism in Europe.

Straw
was excoriated on Jewish websites for his comments, dubbed by some as an
“anti- Semitic rant.” Straw dismissed those concerns.

“None of this is
anti-Semitic,” he said.

“There are plenty of people in Israel who take a
similar view to me – not least (as I do) because they believe that the
current approach of the government of Israel will weaken the position of the
State of Israel in the medium- and long-term.”

Straw’s attack
on AIPAC follows in the footsteps of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt who
in 2007 published The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

Yet again,
the well-known canard that a near-omnipotent American Jewish cabal is
running US policies in the Middle East, particularly vis-à-vis the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was trotted out. The one doing the trotting
out this time was former British foreign secretary Jack Straw.

On
Tuesday, October 22 during a gathering in the British House of Commons,
according to former MK Einat Wilf, Straw told those present that AIPAC ’s
“unlimited” funding and intimidation of American politicians is one of the
main barriers to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ironically,
in May 2003 it was none other than Straw who was accused, along with Labor
cabinet member Peter Mandelson and special envoy to the Middle East Lord
Michael Levy of being part of a “Jewish cabal” influencing then-prime
minister Tony Blair’s policies, including his decision to invade Iraq
together with the US. Apparently, one of Straw’s grandfathers is Jewish. The
accusation was leveled at Straw and the others by Labor MP Tam Dalyell in an
interview in Vanity Fair.

Now, apparently, it is Straw’s turn to fight
back using the same ammunition. Straw’s attack on AIPAC follows in the
footsteps of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt who in 2007 published The
Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

Indeed, Straw, responding Monday
in an e-mail to The Jerusalem Post’s Henry Rome, noted that his comments
about AIPAC ’s influence on US policy are essentially based on Mearsheimer’s
and Walt’s book. Straw also notes that in his 2012 memoir Last Man Standing
he quotes in pages 445- 447 from these two men’s “critical study of AIPAC
.”

Walt and Mearsheimer claimed that highly effective Jewish lobbyists,
together with a group of influential neocons and Evangelical Christian
groups, were essentially bullying consecutive US Congresses and
governments into supporting Israel – including its “military aggression”
and “human rights abuses” – despite the fact that doing so was against
US interests.

Specifically, Mearsheimer and Walt argued that this
lobby, which includes AIPAC , uses the purportedly ample campaign
contributions at its disposal to coerce pro-Israel policymaking in
Congress.

Straw fails to mention in his e-mail to the Post, however, that
many critics both within academia and without, have pointed to the
multitudes of flaws in Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s book, raising serious
questions regarding their motivations – and Straw’s. Maya Spitzer, a student
at the University of Pennsylvanian helpfully collected these many
criticisms in an undergraduate honors thesis available online entitled
The Other Pro-Israel Lobby: The Meirsheimer and Walt Controversy and the
Rise of J Street.

For instance, Columbia professor Robert Lieberman,
who noted the two men’s bad methodology, their faulty research design, and
the incongruity of their claims with scholarly consensus on the American
political system, also criticized their tendency to exaggerate the impact of
campaign contributions on pro-Israel policymaking. The two men overlook
the fact, for instance, that the vast majority of pro-Israel funds go to
Democratic candidates, which suggests that pro-Israel money would have
paltry influence over Republican governments. Yet it was precisely the
Bush administration that was accused by Walt and Mearsheimer of being so
utterly under the control of the pro-Israel lobby. Also, pro-Israel
donations have at times remained flat while overall campaign donations
have soared, diminishing the relative weight of pro-Israel dollars in
campaign coffers. Also, the two bring no evidence to back up their claim
that the pro-Israel lobby, including AIPAC , has used contributions to
effectively launch “revenge campaigns” against candidates deemed to be
not sufficiently pro-Israel. What’s more, scholarly literature has
widely disproved the claim that campaign contributions guarantee
influence. They also conflate Jewish and pro-Israel campaign donations,
exaggerating the true amount of pro-Israel donations.

If these
insidious claims and many others made by Walt and Meirsheimer and others
like them have been so thoroughly discredited, why do people like Straw
continue to repeat them? Why, is AIPAC singled out as the main barrier to
peace between Israel and the Palestinians and not other factors such as
Palestinian intransigence, radicalism and incitement? Isn’t it possible that
US congressmen support Israel because they identify with Israel and not
because they are being bribed or coerced? Back in 2003 when Straw himself
was accused of being a part of a Jewish cabal his spokesman to the BBC the
following: “These remarks are too unworthy to be worth a
comment.”

Perhaps we have already said too much.

(12) Lasse
Wilhelmson, "the most hated man in Sweden"

I did not see Lasse's email
for about 2 weeks, because it was in the Spam Folder.

Google added a
note "Why is this message in Spam? We've found that lots of messages from
bredband.net are spam. Learn more"

But when I forwarded the email back to
Lasse, that note from Google did not show up. Clever, aren't
they?

Lasse Wilhelmson is one of my top favorite thinkers,
writers and human beings. His thoughts about the actual portrait he
reproduces and describes also achieves a poignant self-portrait of the
remarkable man he is. The essay also appeared on Atzmon’s site. It should
appear widely and be read everywhere.

A Portrait that Tells Many
Tales

By Lasse Wilhelmson

{visit the above webpage to see the
pictures}

Picture: writer Lasse Wilhelmson

This is a portrait of
me in my writing corner with some of the many books I have bought over the
past ten years, mainly off the internet; books that are about history, but
not the history told by the victors of Europe’s two world wars. A portrait
of a blue-eyed, curly-haired little boy can be seen too, along with an old
Swedish country sideboard.

Four Books

You can identify them in the
bookcase in the picture. The Jewish Century (2004) by Juri Slezkine, a
Jewish-born American professor of history with roots in Russia. It is
probably one of the most important books ever written, as he himself says,
if you wish to understand 20th century history. According to Slezkine, this
is impossible unless you comprehend the Jewish influence. Everything from
the Russian ”revolution” to European education, culture and science is dealt
with in this book which also includes many statistics.

The next book
is The Israel Lobby, and US Foreign Policy (2007) by two of America’s most
prestigious academics, John J Mearsheimer, professor of political science
and Stephen M Walt, professor of international politics. It came to be the
classic that broke the official silence surrounding all discussions
concerning Israeli and Jewish influence on US foreign policy.

Between
these two, is my own book Is the World Upside Down? (2009). It contains a
selection of my articles about the Palestinian issue, Zionism and the
neocolonial wars waged in the first decades of the 21st century. They are
arranged in order by time which makes it possible to follow how my earlier
opinions, partly Jewish-Marxist, have changed as a result of a changing
world and my in-depth studies.

The red book, The Wandering Who? (2011),
is by Gilad Atzmon. He grew up in a rightwing Zionist home in Israel, where
he did his military service; twenty years ago he chose exile in London where
he now lives with his family. He has, perhaps like no other, deconstructed
Jewish mentality which he sometimes calls Jewishness or Jewish ideology.
Atzmon is also an informed philosopher and one of the world’s best jazz
musicians, his favourite instrument is the saxophone.

Atzmon’s
upbringing and experiences are very different from mine. I found him on the
internet twelve years ago. I read one of his early articles and was
astonished to find that I had a soul-mate, albeit several sizes larger than
myself, apart from our ages. This was when I had just written my first long
essay, perhaps my most significant, dealing among other things with Moses
Hess and Karl Marx: Zionism – More than Traditional Colonialism and
Apartheid.

The Swedish marxist Jan Myrdal had always been my intellectual
role-model up until then. Now Gilad Atzmon replaced him.

Boy in
Picture Laden with Symbols

The portrait of the little boy is my older
brother Börje who died tragically in an accident when he was only four years
old. He was the first child of the marriage between my Jewish mother and my
Swedish father, a marriage that had to wait many years due to the Jewish
family’s reluctance to accept marriage to a non-Jew for a daughter.
Hence, in many ways Börje became a heavily laden symbol for my own
family line. The portrait is painted by Jewish artist Lotte Lazerstein
who fled from Germany before the onset of the Second World War. She was
given refuge and assistance by my parents in our home and initially
supported herself as a portrait painter.

The portrait of me and Börje
also symbolises the beginning of the end of my mother’s Jewish family line
in Sweden. Neither of my sisters, nor our children and grand-children are
Jews. We are all secular Swedes, many traditionally confirmed in the
Christian church. As the oldest child, I was the only one that worried about
my Jewishness, and this led to me spending several years in Israel at the
beginning of the sixties, but also to my involvement in the Palestinian
question later in life. Due to my experiences, I eventually chose not to
identify myself as a Jew at all. I was also liberated from a mind encumbered
with Marxist thinking as the two are linked. I now had the opportunity to
view religions and ideologies in a more independent and traditionally
humanitarian way.

Börje has also played a very different part in my life.
I inherited his portrait because I was the only sibling who knew him when he
was alive, and as a child had prayed to God many times to bring him back to
life. He has always had a special place in my heart, in my own life, and I
have had his portrait on the wall for all my descendants to see. I have
always said to them: Look at Börje, he is our Jewish inheritance,
especially his eyes that are typically Semitic.

Or so I thought,
until one summer I read Arthur Koestler’s book The Thirteenth Tribe. I
realised that my Jewish inheritance was not Semitic, nor was its historic
homeland in Palestine, but in Khazaria where the north Turkish population
converted to Judaism in AD 740. At that time, Khazaria was a super power
situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea along the Silk Road, and
its people had clear Mongolian features. This was the summer of 2001, just
before the terror attack on World Trade Center, 911.

The Eyes of
Börje and of the beholder

When I returned to my home in Täby from our
summer house, I looked with new eyes at the portrait of Börje and suddenly
saw the width between his almond-shaped eyes and the special fold of skin at
his nose. What I thought I had seen all my life was not Semitic at all but
Mongolian – that is to say Khazaric. And indeed my grandmother came from
Grodnow, a town in what was then southern Poland, now Belarus, and had a
majority population of Jews. Her ancestors had migrated from Khazaria to
southern Russia and eastern Europe when the super power disintegrated
sometime during the 11th century. Does anyone wonder where all Europe’s Jews
came from?

Koestler’s book and how it changed my perception of
Börje’s eyes was probably one of the most significant occurrences for my
decision to abandon my Jewish identification – one of many I have always had
throughout my life. Realising the crucial role that ”the eye of the
beholder” can play for someone who believes they can see, affected me
greatly.

The Country sideboard

The brown sideboard seen in the
background of the picture comes from my father’s Swedish family. I know
little about them other than that the family was small and that my paternal
grandfather worked as a farmhand in Nynäshamn and started a family in
Stockholm where he worked as a turner. One day I hope to have the time to
look more closely at my father’s side of the family.

Picture: The
Artist Markus Andersson

Markus is one of the few well-schooled painters
of oils in Sweden today, but he also paints watercolours. Like many artists
from all over the world, he has visited the well-known Norwegian painter Odd
Nerdrum many times to learn his craft and exchange ideas. Personally, I am
not a great fan of Nerdrum’s occasionally necrophobic imagery. Markus paints
portraits, but also in the romantic landscape style and is deeply rooted
in his Swedish heritage as told in traditional Tales of Gods and Viking
legends. Markus is also inspired by Anders Zorn’s pictures of women.
Many of his works have a special, warm, aching and down-to-earth tone
that captures the Swedish soul. His brush also forms gossamer-light
Nordic landscapes.

How We Found Each Other

Markus and I both
love the simple and earthbound life, nature, animals and wooden houses
heated with logs, and carpentry. These are things that create quick
friendships. And we soon realised that both of us had been appointed
ideological pariahs by the Swedish so-called journalist and culture elite.
Markus had been the target of a campaign that dismissed him as a dark-brown
racist, almost a Nazi. Mainly because of the portrait of Christer
Pettersson, but also his overall choice of subjects.

His most
”spectacular” work is a series of Swedish scapegoats, the paintings that
attracted me. Especially the one of Christer Pettersson, the alleged
assassin of prime minister Olof Palme who was acquitted. The painting is a
masterpiece and one he has been well-paid for. Probably far too little which
certainly remains to be seen.

An oil painter who paints realistic
romantic landscapes and rune stones instead of modernist and abstract
motifs… he must be slightly dubious? His work was dismissed as simple kitsch
by Katrine Kielos in the tabloid Expressen. As far as I know the first time
she has acted as an art critic. She now writes leading articles in the
tabloid Aftonbladet, spreading politically correct opinions to the people.
For my part, it has always been about accusations of ”antisemitism” and
suchlike. But I have responded to this elsewhere.

I knew nothing of
Markus’s background as ideological pariah before our paths crossed. We
talked a lot when he was painting me. I did most of the talking, Markus is a
quiet and unassuming person, and moreover he was busy trying to catch his
model’s personal features. We spoke of art, painting, politics and
ideologies, money and economy, exercise and physical training and last but
not least poultry keeping.

I went to art school myself as a small child.
I had forgotten all about it, but the smell of turpentine in Markus’s studio
jogged my memory. My ambitious mother wanted me to become an artist or an
architect. But I studied and worked with psychology and pedagogy in various
environments. I never managed to explain this “occupation” to my paternal
grandfather who was an illiterate pedlar.

The Painting without a
Name

Markus usually gives his paintings names and we discussed this
occasionally. Our hilarious suggestion of a title for my portrait was:
”Nazi” paints ”Antisemite”, or ”Nazi kitsch painter paints Holocaust-
denying antisemite”. But that can wait. We both agreed – or perhaps
quietly hoped – that this picture in the light of history, would
eventually become a treasure. Although neither of us thought it likely
in our lifetimes.

Chickens and ”Clucking”

In the aftermath of
Åsa Linderborg’s hysterical naming and shaming of me as ”Jew-hater” and
”Holocaust-denier” in Aftonbladet at the end of November 2012, I wrote a
small story. Åsa’s outburst was triggered by the fact that young TV
presenter of the European Song Contest, Gina Dirawi who is of Palestinian
origin, had mentioned my book Is the World Upside Down? on her popular blog
and suggested it was suitable ”for evening reading”.

The title of my
story was ”Åsa’s clucking and Gina’s ”antisemitic” chickens”. Eventually
Gina, after suffering many attacks, defended her terrible deed by saying
that she had only read the first nine pages of my book. So, she hadn’t even
finished the first article about my struggle with municipal red-tape in
order to keep my chickens. Probably the most readable article I have ever
written …

Of course Markus and Anna will buy a brood of Hedemora chickens
once the chicks have grown a bit. To replace the ”multicultural” brood they
have at the moment. Oddly enough, I have recently got to know two more
people who keep Hedemora chickens. I like them very much too, even in other
ways.

These stories were written the evening after I had fetched the
painting from the glazier, framed and ready.

About Me

'Mission statement'.
I am convinced that jewish individuals and groups have an enormous influence on the world. The MSM are, for almost all people, the only source of information, and these are largely controlled by jewish people.
So there is a huge under-reporting on jewish influence in the world.
I see it as my mission to try to close this gap. To quote Henry Ford: "Corral the 50 wealthiest jews and there will be no wars." `(Thomas Friedman wrote the same in Haaretz, about the war against Iraq! See yellow marked area, blog 573)
If that is true, my mission must be very beneficial to humanity.